An article in TheStar reminded me of my age not too long ago. Okay, okay, it was pretty long ago. Haha. The article’s title, “Young, carefree and broke,” tells of the Malaysian youth becoming broke because they spend, spend and spend until they have nothing left. From personal loans and even completely using all their credit card limits, these young Malaysians could not care too much. They want to enjoy their lives. After all, we only live once? Those aged between 26 – 44 constitute 60 percent of all bankrupts from 2013 to August 2017. The total number of people declared bankrupt is 94,408. So, 60 percent of them means 56,645 people! Four reasons made them bankrupt. Car loans took up 26.63%, personal loans (25.48%), housing loans (16.87%), and business loans (10.24%). (Hey, this meant that at least if you are borrowing to set up a business, the chances of you failing is still lower than getting a car loan or a personal loan!)
The top four states where all these bankrupt came from is not hard to guess. Selangor is top followed by followed by the Federal Territories (46,377), Johor Baru (41,179) and Penang (22,136). Coming back to the time when I was 22. Frankly, there were months where my salary was hardly enough to last till end of the month. It was also because at the time, I had to visit my girlfriend (fortunately that same girl is now my wife) in Sandakan. The ‘damage’ from flight tickets alone? RM1,500 per trip. Okay, okay, I admit it was also because I was adamant in giving my parents monthly allowances even though both of them were earning far higher than me. By 23 though, I realised I had NOTHING MUCH in my bank account and fortunately for me, my wife saved a lot of money which helped us purchase our first apartment and well, life got better after that. NOT because of the property lah. It’s because we worked hard and saved more. My wife changed me lah.
So, what’s actually worst than Young, Carefree and Broke? Well, it’s OLD, NOT FREE and still BROKE. Seriously, most Malaysians do not have enough to retire. EPF alone is not enough Besides, when we are old but we still have to work, then we are not free at all. No time to even watch our favourite show on TV. So, looking to work till 68, or older? Working until 68, still healthy I guess Speaking of broke, well, as all your financial consultant friends would tell us, as long as we save 30 percent of what we have today, we would have about 70% of what we earn by the time we retire. Well, coupled with EPF plus one or two properties, (properties are a great hedge versus inflation too) I think we will do just okay. Nowhere near rich but enough to retire la. Happy thinking or spending. It will affect how much we have today and future. Becoming a millionaire by working just 9-5?
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written on 13 Dec 2017
Next suggested article: Working hard for money, resting enough to continue on. Nice
